DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Di'ocument

Haunting Question: Did the Ban on Asbestos Lead to Loss of Life? By JAMES GLANZ •Y ,.W and ANDREW C. REVKIN

As the World Trade Center was being built in the late 196O’s and early 197O’s, scientists were learning "that asbestos fibers in materials '-commonly used to fireproof steel ^beams could cause cancer in work­ ers and bystanders who were inten­ sively exposed to the fibers, especial­ ly around mines and manufacturing ; plants dealing with asbestos. Anticipating a ban, the builders stopped using the materials by die K time they reached the 40th floor of the north tower, the first one to go up. Now some engineers and scientists T- including at least one whose re­ search supported an asbestos ban in New York City — are haunted by a troubling question: were the substi­ tute materials as effective in protect­ ’Y).'■ j-'OsiSS ing against fire as the asbestos-con- t^ning materials they replaced? / Asbestos, a fibrous, silicate min- . eral, was highly prized as a fire- ; proofing component because of its high melting point and its resistance - to chemical breakdown. It also con- . ducts little heat and its fibers create strong, supple materials. The question haunts those engi­ IS!!!!!!!! The New York Times neers and scientists, but not because they think asbestos insulation might Early in the trade centers’ construction, builders abandoned asbestos as Jiave ultimately preserved the tow­ a fireproofing material. Now some scientists wonder about the decision. ers’ steel beams and trusses, which buckled in Tuesday’s infernos, caus­ ing the towers to collapse. professor of mechanical and aero­ Before the trade towers are rebuilt Virtually as one, experts on the space engineering at Rutgers. — as some suggest they should be — development, testing and use of fire­ Dr. Jaluria, who added that simi­ such studies should be used to design proofing materials say no standard lar questions surroimded the wide­ buildings able to “withstand this sce­ treatment of the steel, asbestos or spread fires in Kuwait in the Persian nario,” Dr. Williamson said. otherwise, could have averted the Gulf war in 1991, said he was all but Guy F. Tozzoli, who as director of . collapse of the towers in the extraor- certain that asbestos would have the world trade department for the ; dmarily hot and violent blaze. made no difference in the attack on Port Authority of New York and New „ But .some wonder whether asbes- the towers. But he said that definitive Jersey from 1962 until 1987 was a 7tos insulation might have kept the data do not exist. prime mover of the twin towers I towers intact long enough for more While no one believes that fire­ project, said they were designed to people to have escaped. And more proofing or other technology is a substitute for preventing terrorism, survive being struck by a Boeing 707, important, they say the disaster at some scientists say building designs the largest jet of the day. The studies the World Trade Center exposes a and materials should be subjected tc envisioned a low-speed impact by a gap in their knowledge about many much more detailed analysis. plane lost in fog, he said. fireproofing materials. “The technology exists today to do And, initially at least, each tower While those materials are routine­ a full-scale computer analysis of did survive the high-speed impact of ly tested under conditions typical of what would happen under these con­ ordinary fires, their effectiveness at a larger jet, a Boeing 767. ditions that we saw on television,” When it came to fireproofing, the the much higher temperatures of said Dr. R. Brady Williamson, an last week’s catastrophe is generally Port Authority at first turned to a emeritus professor of engineering mixture containing about 20 percent imknown. In the new world of domes­ science at the University of Califor­ tic terrorism, some authorities say asbestos that was sprayed onto steel nia at Berkeley. ignorance is no longer acceptable. “Tests for very violent and very large-scale fires have not been done,” said Dr. Yogesh Jaluria, a

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